The European Commission is calling for applications for the award on Roma integration in the Western Balkans and Turkey.
According to the Council of Europe, Italy is not doing enough on the integration of Roma. Despite various parliamentary initiatives, a national legal framework has still not been adopted. Anti-Gypsyism persists at all levels of society and is insufficiently fought against. A negative portrayal of Roma and Sinti remains widespread, including on social media.
The Facebook page of the Romea organisation has been hacked last week.
Bad.
The memorial museum Auschwitz-Birkenau will launch a new online education entitled “Roma – the experience of extermination”. It is part of their current work in raising awareness about the Roma Genocide during the Holocaust.
The monument commemorating the Roma victims of the Holocaust in Salzburg, Austria, was again damaged by vandals over the weekend. This is unfortunately not the first time.
Whether bilingual boards will be placed on public institutions in the Međimurje municipality of Orehovici, where around 33 percent of the population is made up of members of the Roma national minority, is a question that has yet to be answered. According to the law, this should be the case.
Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of the National Plan for the Inclusion of Roma recently discussed this topic, MP Veljko Kajtazi told Hina, noting that none of the representatives of Orehovice Municipality were present at the session of that committee, although they were invited.
“This is most likely a message that they don’t care. They scared Roma in for example by telling them that the guaranteed minimum compensation would be abolished if there were bilingual signs, that it would be worse than in Vukovar, and the locals told them all sorts of things,” said Kajtazi. He added that his point of view is that the law, especially the constitutional one (Constitutional Law on the Rights of National Minorities), must be implemented and that a dialogue should be established on how to implement the right to bilingualism.
Another article in the Slovak press about the bias that Roma face in the judicial system.
Anti-Roma racism is not only widespread in society, Roma are discriminated against at all levels of criminal proceedings. This follows from research reports published by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). The report states that accused Roma face discrimination at every stage of criminal proceedings by the police, judges, prosecutors and often their own defence lawyers.
A normally quite good radio station organised a discussion on the “Civilisation Tsigane”. It would have been good if they had checked their facts. France still seems totally confused between “Gens du Voyage”, Tsiganes, Roma, etc.
Quite a few news and articles about Roma in France this week. It all starts with the destruction of a Roma camp in Villeron (Val d’Oise) near Paris by local residents. The town’s mayor participated in this de-facto pogrom and is now under investigation. It is sad, and it is also the reflection of a total failure of the French state. These shantytowns lodge less than 20’000 people. They have, for the most part, been in France for 20 years. And the sate failed in their integration.
The other big news is that of a French senator for the centre right stating that the deputies of the LFI (La France Insoumise – Leftist party) are transforming the National Assembly in a “Gypsy camp”. Several associations have requested he excuses himself and have complained about the systemic racism against Roma in France.
A bad week …
An article about a town near Paris that took it up to themselves to chase Roma away from their territory.
About a hundred Roma lived in a shantytown made of wooden huts in this Villeron (Val d’Oise) where Marine Le Pen came first in the presidential election, and which has been headed since 2014 by Dominique Kudla (without label). The mayor is now singled out for having supported and accompanied the rally that led to the eviction and destruction of the slum. “The mayor’s mission is to be the guarantor of the rule of law. We totally and unambiguously disapprove of what happened,” said Prefect Philippe Court. An investigation has been opened to specify, in particular, “whether or not there has been violence against people as well as damage to property”, announces the Pontoise prosecutor’s office.
Bad.
Again. This story comes up every few months, even though the people involved have been in jail for years. It is a story of a mafia clan that was also a Roma family (and not the other way around). They do not do that many articles in the press on other mafiosi.
Bad.
Munich Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx wants to conduct a review of the historical responsibility of the Catholic Church for the persecution of the Sinti and Rom during the Nazi. Marx visited the documentation and cultural centre of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
The visit also dealt in particular with the role of the then Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Michael Faulhaber (1869-1952) and his attitude towards Sinti and Roma.
The three sisters Snezana (Simonida Selimović), Tanja (Jasmin Behnawa) and Melisa (Zeynep Alan) travel to their mother’s Serbian home village and thus begin to confront their own identity. Jelena, the mother of the siblings, who could hardly be more different, went to Boljevac to celebrate Bibijako Dive (“Aunt’s Day”) and died shortly afterwards. The festival is celebrated every year on January 31st, the same day on which the play in WERK X was first performed in Vienna.
In “Bibi Sara Kali” the confrontation with the alienated Roma culture and its customs is brought to the stage in a self-deprecating, humorous and authentic way.
“It’s always wonderful to see the audience so enthusiastic. Being able to tell our stories is of course something special,” says director Simonida Selimović in an interview with KURIER. She herself was born in Serbia, but came to Vienna at the age of seven. Growing up in two cultures, I can identify with my siblings’ struggle for identity.
A young Romni student from Nitra is among the 12 finalists for this year’s Miss Slovakia contest.
She is twenty years old and, in addition to her studies, she is also an activist. “I am a member of the Roma Youth Leadership Academy, where we are currently preparing the third Congress of young Roma men and women. This event will be run under the auspices of the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma communities,” she said.
The very long story of the police brutality against Roma in Košice which started in 2009 and saw Roma who had sued the police being brought to court is finally coming to an end. The European Court of Human Rights who had condemned Slovakia in the process awarded 20’000 EUR to each of the Roma.
At long last!
Austrian TV Station ORF Burgenland will start a new series on Sunday, February 12, 2023 as part of the TV folk group program “Romano Dikipe”. “In the footsteps of vanished Roma settlements” is the title of the series that investigates the situation of the Roma in Burgenland today. In each program, a different location is visited in order to talk to Burgenland Roma and Romnja about their lives, but also about the past. The reports are in Burgenland Romani, the language of the Roma in Burgenland, and have German subtitles throughout. The new series is based on the comprehensive historical work of the two Burgenland historians Herbert Brettl and Gerhard Baumgartner. The latter is also a studio guest on “Burgenland heute” on Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 7:00 p.m.
The Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová came to the village of Toporec in the district of Kežmarok to see the impact of education on Roma. In that village, education is very important to Roma and the impact on their lives is visible: They live much better than their less educated brethrens.
The president considers the village of Toporec to be an example for the whole country.
An interview with the actress, screenwriter, director, and Romani activist Alina Şerban who wishes to have more time for travelling, more time for herself this coming year. She says “The biggest dream for this year would be to travel more, to give myself time to breathe and develop without work. Until now, I didn’t really know how to do this without work, because work saved me. But looking back, I don’t know how I spent my years, I just see a lot of work. I hope to enjoy life more this year.”
For centuries, Sinti and Roma were excluded and persecuted in Germany. To this day, the fight for recognition is tough. This also includes a student association that wants to give Sinti/Roma and diversity at universities a voice.
Two reports by the European Roma Right Centre highlight the discrimination of Roma in the justice systems of both the Czech and Slovak Republics.
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